Skull and Shackles

Barnaby Greaves

Description:

Bio:

Barnaby was born on an elven frigate sailing Lake Encarthan. His mother had been wary of the trip, but was assured by the healers and midwives that this child would not come early. They were wrong. The first sounds the infant heard was the creak of timber, the crash of wave, and the shouting of a crewman above deck.

Barnaby was the only child of a well-to-do family of nobles. They were technically minor royalty, but distant enough so that the rules and duties of the crown were not applicable. He was raised in the coastal city of Greengold. His parents left his upbringing to his nanny, a withered old half-elf named Vala.

From early on his relatives could tell that something wasn’t quite right with the youngster. He was aggressive and often bullied other children. He would run away for hours at a time, almost always heading down to the docks to sneak aboard and explore the ships there. He would sometimes even steal from street vendors. Needless to say this was quite the embarrassment to his family. The more he did such things the more the family would try to keep him contained to the family estate, the more they tried to keep him there the more he would try to escape. Vala was the only person to defend the lad, saying he had to work these things out for himself. The family finally took the troubled youth to a holy person and received the bad news…he was evil. Shocked and enraged his parents locked him away. Vala was dismissed and charged with corrupting a youth. The old nanny died before the trial ever happened.

To rehabilitate the misguided Barnaby the best specialists were brought in to educate and enlighten.

Barnaby had a top notch education and demonstrated a true gift for mathematics, engineering, and magical theory. He was one of those special individuals who could “see” the math and formulae naturally. Due to the fact he still detected as evil magical training was forbidden. Priests of Findeladlara taught him of art and architecture while other sages gave him a more universal education. He did well in his studies, though he was constantly distracted. From his tower he could see the sea. He would stare out, dreaming of sea spray and fresh air.

Soon after his 90th birthday he had had enough. He set his mind to leaving. He decided on a date; he would leave that day no matter the consequences! As luck would have it there was a thick fog that morning. He killed his civics tutor with a pencil, smashed down his door, and made his way down to the courtyard. In the fog he was easily able to get to the wall and scale it unnoticed. He made his way to the docks and snuck aboard a ship that was readying to depart. The fog soon lifted and the ship was off by mid-morning. By the time anyone knew what had happened Barnaby was already en route to Absalom.

The crew soon found him, but believing he was a dock rat didn’t think much of it and put him to work. The adolescent changed his name to Barnaby Greaves and he hasn’t looked back since.

Barnaby spent the next 30 years working aboard ships and picking up odd jobs at the different port cities he would visit. His general routine involved hiring aboard a ship, travelling to a new port, then spending the next 6 months to a year working around the city/town/village. No job was too menial. He’s worked as a: baker, scribe, bartender, herbalist, cook, brewer, hunter, librarian, and many more. He’s worked on many vessels and types of vessels as well, he even served with Maisy once before a few years back. During his off time he would explore the surrounding land and coastline, eventually training himself to be a Ranger dedicated to Besmara.

While he’s put it off for a time, Barnaby always knew his destiny was to become a pirate. A few months ago he arrived in Port Peril (a place he’d been before) to start looking into his options. In typical elvish fashion he was waiting for just the right time and right opportunity. Then one night…

He had come to a tavern in Port Peril called the Formidably Maid in search of his fate. He’s not sure how many drinks he had, but they quickly went to his head and he passed out on the table before he found his destiny—unless it lay in the bottom of a bottle. Then again, maybe he found his destiny after all…